


Sharing a bed (again)

by Hufflepuff97



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Idiots in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-03-24 19:07:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13817559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hufflepuff97/pseuds/Hufflepuff97
Summary: Hardy and Miller are both feeling *things*





	1. Hardy's suffering

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for the awful title, but I really had no idea for something better.

They are lying in bed, both facing the other way. It’s late at night and they both look tired, Ellie even more so than Hardy.

  
“ _Still a bit weird,_ ” Ellie comments, referring to the last time they shared a bed.

“ _Well, Millahr, you were the one who booked the hotel room_.”

And after a bit, more mumbled: “ _Just like last time this happened_.”

Ellie turns around to face Hardy and pokes him in the back.

“ _Hey! What’s that for_?”

Hardy turns around as well, now they’re facing each other.

“ _What exactly are you insinuating, sir_?”

It’s dark so Hardy can’t be sure, but he’s fairly certain that Ellie’s eyes are blazing dangerously. Alas he’s foolhardy enough to continue.

“ _Just that it seems like you enjoy having me in your bed_.”

Ellie turns around again and Hardy thinks for a small moment that that’s the end of the conversation. That’s she’s given up like that and he’s won their argument. But no, she just turned around to switch the light on. Then she faces him again, her face now luminated by the lamp on her bed side table.

“ _It’s late, we had an awful day chasing someone who turned out to not even exist and now you’re fucking with me. Really?_ ”

“ _Is that the right word to choose in this situation?_ ”

“ _What?_ ”

“ _Well, just saying. You get me in your bed and then you start to talk about *fucking*_.”

“ _Oh for god’s sake Hardy. What has gotten into you?_ ”

Hardy isn’t even sure himself. Normally it’s the other way around. She teasing him, his grunts and silences riling her up. It might have been the two glasses of wine he drank earlier that put him in this teasing mood. Hardy realises he’s enjoying it, even more than he usually enjoys it when she’s exasperated by him. Unfortunately she doesn’t really appreciate his grinning.

“ _I’m going to leave you here tomorrow, you can find your own lift home!_ ”

“ _Oi, Millahr. I’m still your boss you know_.”

“ _That doesn’t mean you’re not an absolute wanker._ ”

Hardy’s grin turns wider.

“ _That’s really not how you should speak to your superior._ ”

“ _Hmph. What are you going to do about it?_ ”

Hardy hesitates for a second. It might have been the wine that has addled his brain but that sentence definitely sounded flirty to him.

“ _Well, I have some ideas._ ”

He leans closer, their faces almost touching when a sound startles him. Hardy opens his eyes. His alarm blaring loudly. He’s lying in his own bed. Alone. His groan is filled with frustration.

“ _Not again._ ”

It has been a couple of weeks since the dreams started. All dreams following the same scenario. Miller and him sharing a bed in a hotel. In the beginning he was freaked out. Apart from the fact that it was Miller he was dreaming about, which took too little time to get used to if he was honest, there was the fact that she would kill him if she found out. He was sure it would be a slow and painful death. When it kept happening he realized that at least the dreams had taken the place of the nightmares that usually bothered him.

To be perfectly honest it wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy the dreams themselves. The dreams were great. This one had ended rather abruptly, but some had involved rather pleasant... _activities_... The problem was having to work with Miller, or rather how his body had started reacting to working with Miller. Since his newfound appreciation her close proximity had made him short of breath on a couple of occasions. She had been worried his hart had been playing up again. Maybe it had, but not in the way she was referring to.

“ _For fuck's sake, keep it together._ ”

Hardy got out of bed and took a shower, a long one, to get rid of some of his frustration. He grabbed a crumpled up shirt from the floor and put it on. He combed his hair with his hands, grabbed his wallet and was out the door. Daisy had a sleep-over at the Latimers so he didn’t need to worry about her. When he arrived at the station, Miller was already waiting for him. His stomach made some weird lurches at that, like he was a teenager. He scowled at that and felt disgusted with himself. She was cheery this morning, _she_ obviously had had a good night's sleep. It was going to be a long fucking day.


	2. Chapter 2

Ellie’s been having a weird couple of weeks. It had all started with Hardy looking positively guilty when arriving at the station. Normally she would have pounded on an opportunity to make him even more uneasy but this time something had given her pause. It might have to do with Daisy so she wanted to thread carefully. She had decided to wait and see if he came to her himself (bloody unlikely but still, a girl could hope). She had given him two days but off course he hadn’t told her anything. So she had taken matters into own hands and looked into it, it hadn’t taken her long to deduce that something was wrong with his heart. The guilty look in his eyes combined with the shortness of breath that had returned were tell-tale signs. _The absolute wanker_. She had immediately given him a good bollocking. The anger used to hide the fear that had gripped her from the moment the idea had struck her.

After he had his operation he had said that everything would be normal now, that she shouldn’t worry about him anymore (off course she still did but it had lessened when the months passed by). But now the worry had reared his ugly head once again. She would probably never tell him but Hardy was the only reason she had survived the trial. He had been there and had made sure her mind was occupied with other things. Off course it had been in his way. Awkward and grumpy. But still, he had been by her side the whole time.

When she confronted him, he vehemently denied that something was wrong with his heart. She felt relieved after that. Maybe this was more attributed to the fact that she had called his doctors and sort of bullied them into giving her all his information. She had been assured that everything was indeed okay. (Hardy didn’t know she had called his doctors behind his back, but hey, he had once stalked her, so it was not that he could complain if he ever found out).  
She still made sure that he really was okay by staying close by at all times now. She used to refuse any physical contact he had proposed. But now she decided she wouldn’t mind a nice hug, just to reassure her he was okay. So she had started sort of hovering around him. He might have noticed because he was staring a lot at her lately but so far he hadn’t commented on it. Probably for the best, she wasn’t sure if she could explain it.  
The incident had made her think though. About the fact that she had freaked out this much (and was still freaking out a bit). The thought of Hardy not being there made her feel even worse than the thought of Joe turning up in Broadchurch.

Ellie had been sitting in the car when these thoughts were first milling through her head. Out of the corner of her eye she had seen Hardy staring again. She hoped she hadn’t been muttering to herself like a crazy nutter. He was probably worried that she was losing her shit and would drive of a cliff or something (after all if they did drive of a cliff, his heart surgery would have been for nothing).

_“You all right, Millahr?”_

  
She had grunted a reply. Not really caring that she always criticised him for doing just that when she asked him questions.  
Het mind wandered back to the situation she was currently in and more specifically Hardy. If it was anyone else his scruffy exterior and grumpy remarks might be considered cute in some weird way (her sister had told her she would if she had the chance, that had been a weird conversation). But the fact remained that it wasn’t anyone else, it was Hardy. Her boss and friend. The sad truth being that he was probably her best friend. The only man she could still trust and might ever trust in her life. Her thoughts were starting to go in a direction she didn't want to go. Hardy was a wanker, end of story. He might be a cute wanker, but a cute wanker is still a wanker. And if she would ever tell him that she thought he was adorable he would certainly kill her. He wouldn’t even touch her, he would just look at her and his eyes would kill her stone-dead.

He was still in love with his ex-wife after all. What? Why would that be a problem. It wasn’t like she wanted him in a romantic way. It wasn’t like she wanted that fantasy she once had to come true. Him pinning her against his desk after a long day of work when they were the only two left in the entire station was just an innocent daydream. And even if this thought had come up a few times, it still didn't mean she wanted it to really happen.

Oh, she was in so much shit. Her taste in men was pretty fucking pathetic. If she was superstitious, she would say the women in her family had been cursed. Always falling for the absolute wrong men. Well some of them were worse than others. After Joe, it wasn't like she could do worse. Hardy was positively perfect in comparison to him.  
She tried to ignore these feelings to the best of her abilities, but it had been hard with Hardy looking at her like that. Didn't he realize what he was doing to her? Probably not, in things like this he could be so ignorant. It might be for the best, she would die of shame if he ever found out.

It was Monday morning now. She was early. She had slept well but had been rudely awoken by a crying Fred. Her usual morning routine had started earlier this way, so she had decided to leave for the station a bit sooner than usual. It was definitely not because she had missed Hardy's grumpy face. No, definitely not that. He arrived ten minutes after her, wearing the same crumpled suit as usual. His hair was sticking up weirdly on the back of his head. Making her want to reach out and go through it with her hands. Wanker. He didn't even mumble a good morning so she assumed he had a bad night's sleep. She didn't really mind, feeling too happy with seeing him and greeted him with a cheery hello.


	3. Resolution

Things with Daisy had been going really well recently. But that didn’t mean she stopped being a moody teenager or he his grumpy self. So from time to time they still had their fights. Today seemed one of these days where he couldn’t say or do anything that didn’t seem to make her mad. She had left in a huff muttering something about hanging out with Chloe and he had kicked a door post and was now sitting in a chair with some ice on his foot. Luckily Miller had come in. Leaving the kids with her dad wanting to escape her own moody teenager. Together they had started to look through some papers from their new case. Pretty soon though she had just flopped back in a chair not bothering to work anymore. She had kicked off her shoes and had started searching through her bag that seemed to be filled to the brink. After she had deposited some energy bars, a scotch egg and a toy that he recognized as belonging to Fred on his coffee table, she found what she was looking for. A bottle of wine.

He had thrown down the papers he was holding and with a muttered “I’ll go get some glasses” had started an evening of drinking. It was the first time that they had really hung out just the two of them. Off course they were often found at each other’s houses. Most of the time to work, sometimes, when Hardy couldn’t evade it any longer, a dinner. But those had always been with the kids. Now they were hanging out in his house, with wine, without kids. For the two of them to hang out, not working, most of the times something tragic would have happened. But now they were just two friends complaining about their children and sipping some wine. Miller was talking about a rumour she heard about Becca Fisher, Hardy didn’t care that much but liked just leaning back and looking at her. Off course it didn’t take her too long to notice that he wasn’t paying attention. Not to what she was saying anyway. By this time they had found another bottle of wine in the back of one of Hardy’s kitchen cabinets. This one was almost empty as well.

_“You’re staring again.”_

_“Hmm, what?”_ Hardy was in that exact moment thinking about the wonderful dreams he would certainly have that night.

_“You. Staring. At. Me.”_

_“Oh, ‘m sorry.”_

They were still sitting in different chairs but he was leaning so far back that his knees occasionally bumped into Miller’s. Neither of them said anything about it. He felt utterly comfortable. This had been a while because these last couple of weeks he had always felt nervous or apprehensible in Miller’s vicinity. But now, half-lying in his chair, with his sixth glass of wine he didn’t feel nervous.

He felt relaxed and like he was in a dream-state. More recently the dreams had branched out, not only taking place in hotel rooms but in his home and hers, on the beach and one pretty saucy one in his office at the police station. So in his haze he forgot that this wasn’t a dream and leaned forward to kiss her, he was on the side of her chair by now. He stroked some strands of hair out of her face and then slowly their lips touched. If he had been a bit more observant, he would have seen Miller’s look of utter confusion during all of this. But when he finally kissed her, she closed her eyes and sort of melted into him.

Ellie was on her seventh glass of wine and even though she wasn’t a lightweight at all, she was a hard-working mum who didn’t drink as much as she used to, so she was a bit more drunk than she had intended to be. But when the kiss turned more passionate it seemed like her brain started working again, first to tell her that Hardy was a phenomenally good kisser (who’d have thought?). And after that, HARDY’S KISSING ME. SHE WAS KISSING HIM BACK. WHAT?? For one nanosecond she wanted to just let it happen, see where the night ended. But a rational part of her brain told her that they should talk first. Because she would not be able to work with him again if he thought of this as just a drunken shag. And he would probably just leave because he wouldn’t be able to handle the awkwardness that would envelop their partnership. It was better for both of them that they talked about it. She was just going to let this kiss happen for a few more moments because he was _really_ good. What was that tongue-thing he did?? But then his lips moved from her mouth to her neck and he started unbuttoning her top. Her eyes flew open immediately, even though she so much wanted to let this happen. They needed to talk.

So she sat back a little bit straighter and said: _“Hardy, wait.”_

Hardy looked up and stilled his hands. What she saw made her feel weak. His hair was even more of a mess than it normally was and his lips looked very red. His eyes were shining passionately, which sent a shiver down her backbone. Other than that, he looked confident, a look that normally didn’t grace his features when he wasn’t working. Normally everything he did in his private life was tingled with a bit (or a lot) of awkwardness. But now, he seemed so in control of the situation. She realized that her wine-addled brains had gone on a tangent and he was looking at her expectantly.

“Something wrong?”

“Just, shouldn’t we talk about this?”

Hardy sat up straighter as well, he had been lying half on top of her but moved a bit to her right to sit next to her.

“I mean, you’re my boss. And…”

A look of horror crossed Hardy’s face. This talking about if they should or shouldn't didn’t happen in his dreams. That could only mean this was real. Shit. But then again, he had just kissed Miller, in real life. And more importantly: she had kissed back, rather fervently at that. He felt a bit light-headed.

Miller in the meantime had seen the look of horror and interpreted it immediately and very wrongly. By looking away, she had missed the look of wonder that followed. She felt nauseated, he was horrified by kissing her, so any _foolish_ hopes she had had where obviously just that, foolish.  So she grabbed some stuff lying on the table and started stuffing it in her bag.  

_“You shouldn’t drink this much, sir. You obviously do things that you’re horrified by only minutes later.”_

Hardy’s brain took a while to catch up with what she was saying. By then, Miller had stuffed everything back in her bag and was now searching for her shoes.

_“What?”_

_“Let’s just not talk about this ever again.”_

Hardy grabbed her shoulders. His touch was light but it did stop her.

_“Is that what you want?”_

Ellie very much didn’t want to look in his eyes and wanted to go cry and raid her fridge, but she wasn’t going to show that to him. The absolute prick. So she looked into his eyes, there was hurt in it and something that looked like dejected hope. Hmm, maybe she had misinterpreted the look on his face earlier. 

She hesitated for a second. Since Joe there hadn’t been anyone. She had a problem with being open and trusting someone else. Not too strange when your husband was a paedophile and a murderer, trust doesn’t come so easily after that. But this was Hardy, he was the absolute opposite of Joe. He was grumpy and had no social talents whatsoever. He could be an absolute dick sometimes and he was her boss. But he also didn’t lie to her. She knew he would never intentionally hurt her. So she took a leap of faith.

_“No.”_

A smile appeared on Hardy’s face (which was so unfair, he looked way too attractive like that).

The smile widened, _“you think I look attractive when I smile?”_

Ellie’s eyes widened, shit, she was too drunk to not speak her thoughts out loud, how where they going to have this conversation now.

_“Maybe we should talk? Do you want to sit back down, or…?”_

 “We should start with drinking water, I think. Or tomorrow is going to be hard.”

_“Yes… I’ll go get us some glasses.”_

Ellie went to sit back down. And put her head in between her hands. This could be either a disaster or the best thing that happened to her in a while. She heard Hardy coming back into the living room, looked up and accepted the glass of water he reached out to her. They both sipped from their water while Hardy went to sit back down again. Not right next to her, but in the chair he had vacated earlier in the evening when he had started kissing her.

“ _So.._ ” they both said, almost simultaneously.

Miller decided she should be the one who started talking.

“ _Why did you kiss me?_ ”

“ _Well, uhm, it’s a long story, that I won’t go into. But.._ ” Hardy was muttering this and hesitated in between words, his earlier confidence had obviously entirely left him. Ellie couldn’t help the soft smile that graced her features.

“ _I’ve had dreams._ ”

“ _Dreams?_ ”

“ _About you and me_.”

Ellie felt her head turning red. If they had been one bit as graphic as her daydreams they would have been… sex dreams. Hardy had had _sex dreams_ about her.

“ _They just started happening one day and then I realized I didn’t mind them and that I wouldn’t mind those things happening in real life and…_ ”

The absence of an answer was making Hardy very nervous. Miller was never lost for words.

“ _The things in the dreams…_ ”

Hardy just nodded.

“… _do you just want them?_”

“ _What do you mean_?”

Ellie faltered at this, but if there was one thing she wasn’t it was a coward.

“ _Do you just want to have sex or do you want a- more?_ ”

Her heart was thumping loudly by now, what was she thinking? She had been turned down by Dirty Brian of all people and that had hurt. But this, this would be much more painful. She didn’t even want to go out with Dirty Brian, she had just wanted to not be alone. But this, she really wanted. The full package. Not just because she wanted to be part of a team again, but because she wanted be a team with Hardy. The insufferable prick.

“ _Both_.”

Ellie looked up.

“ _Millahr, I want everything that you’re willing to give. I know your life is complicated enough without me thrown into the mix and that I can be quite awful so I wouldn’t hold it against you if you didn't want…_ ”

Hardy’s nervous waffling got to an abrupt end when Miller jumped up and then pulled him up as well.

“ _Shut up_ ”

“ _What_?”

Ellie grabbed his head and crashed their mouths together. It was a bit painful and not exactly the perfect start of a kiss but they both didn’t really care about that, the fact that they were kissing again was enough. And then Hardy did that tongue thing again and she lost al conscious thought. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it!


End file.
